Daniel Allan
Data Enginering Group Lead, Data Science & System Integration, National Synchrotron Light Source II

Brookhaven National Laboratory
National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 741
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-3281
dallan@bnl.gov
Pronouns: he/him
Dr. Allan leads the Data Engineering group within the Data Science and Systems Integration (DSSI) Program at NSLS-II. He manages a group with diverse skills and backgrounds to innovate in the areas of data management, storage, and access. They work with a shared goal of making a strong and practical impact on day-to-day scientific work at user facilities. Allan is an advocate for open source scientific software; he believes that working openly and collaboratively across instruments and facilities leads to stronger science and a more productive, dynamic, and fun working environment.
Allan is the Technical Steering Committee Chair of the Bluesky Project, a multi-facility software collaboration which leverages the scientific Python ecosystem to enable experimental science at the lab-bench scale and facility scale. Bluesky was initially developed at NSLS-II by Allan and collaborators in 2015; it is now is co-developed and used at facilities around the world. He is also the initial author of Caproto, an experiment in human-friendly distributed hardware control, which has been used at several research institutions.
The Data Engineering group is currently focused on cutting-edge data security; advancing asynchronous scanning capabilities and handling the streams of data they generate; and developing and deploying the remote data access service, Tiled.
Expertise | Education | Awards
Expertise
As a PhD student, Allan studied soft condensed matter physics and the rheology of interfaces. This work, which involved sophisticated image analysis and data processing, led him to the open source scientific Python software ecosystem. Through this community, he has contributed to major open source projects and built a strong network across industry, academia, and NSLS-II's peer user facilities across the US and around the world.
Education
- Ph.D. in Physics, Johns Hopkins University (2008-2014). Adviser: Robert L. Leheny
- University of Rochester (2004-2008)
- B.S. in Physics
- B.S. in Applied Mathematics
- B.A. in Music
Awards & Recognition
- NOBUGS Bill Pulford Prize (2024)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory Pinnacle Engineering Award, the lab's highest recognition (2022)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory Lab Award (2017)

Brookhaven National Laboratory
National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 741
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-3281
dallan@bnl.gov